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From The “How Do They Keep A Straight Face” Files

The Washington Examiner is reporting that President Obama has sent “ethics czar” Norm Eisen to the Russian front, and is shuttering the last vestiges of his romantic comedy titled Transparency and Open Government choosing, instead, to hand ethics and transparency over to Obamafia lawyer and White House Counsel Bob Bauer:

Bauer’s own words — gathered by the diligent folks at the Sunlight Foundation — show disdain for openness and far greater belief in the good intentions of those in power than of those trying to check the powerful. In December 2006, when the Federal Election Commission proposed more precise disclosure requirements for parties, Bauer took aim at the practice of muckraking enabled by such disclosure.

On his blog, Bauer derided the notion “that politicians and parties are pictured as forever trying to get away with something,” saying this was an idea for which “there is a market, its product cheaply manufactured and cheaply sold.” In other words — we keep too close an eye on our leaders.

In August 2006 Bauer blogged, “disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned.” This is the man the White House has put in charge of making this the most open White House ever.